System and method for connecting a user to business services

ABSTRACT

A system and method for connecting a user to business services monitors all attempts by the user to place outgoing telephone calls. When a user is attempting to place a call to a business, the system checks to see if the business has created a voice application that could be performed for the user. If so, the business&#39; voice application is performed for the user on the user&#39;s local device, instead of connecting the user to the business&#39; customer service line. If no voice application is available for the user, then the system connects the user to the business&#39; customer service line, either through a telephone network, or through a data network connection.

This application claims priority to the filing date of U.S. ProvisionalApplication No. 61/157,331, which was filed on Mar. 4, 2009, thecontents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. This applicationis also a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 11/514,116,which was filed on Sep. 1, 2006 now abandoned, which itself claimspriority to the filing date of U.S. Provisional Application No.60/712,808, which was filed on Sep. 1, 2005, the contents of both ofwhich are hereby incorporated by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to systems and methods that are used to connect acaller to a business or to services offered by a business.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Presently there are multiple different ways to connect a telephone callto a business. FIG. 1 illustrates some of the current architecture usedto place and receive telephone calls. As shown therein, a telephone 20or cellular telephone 30 can directly communicate with the telephonenetwork 230. If a user wishes to call business one 120, telephone 20 orcellular telephone 30 could be used, and the user would simply dial themain telephone number for business one 120. The call would be connectedthrough the telephone network 230.

Some users now obtain their telephone service via a data networkconnection. This can include users who send telephone calls through aprivate data network, such as a cable television service provider. Thiscan also include users who connect telephone calls through the Internet.Either way, the user's have a data network interface 15 that isconnected to a telephone 10. The data network interface 10 convertsanalog signals into digital data, and vice versa, so that the user'sanalog telephone 10 can be used to place telephone calls over the datanetwork 100. However, those calls are ultimately delivered to thetelephone network 230 for connection to most businesses.

Regardless of how the user accesses the telephone network 230, users aretypically charged a fee for placing telephone calls. This could be aflat monthly fee that covers all local calls, or even all local and longdistance calls. But the telephone carriers must still receive somecompensation for connecting calls through the telephone network 230.

On the other hand, if a user dials a toll-free telephone number for abusiness, which are numbers that typically begin with 800 or 866, thenthe user would not be charged for placing the call. Instead, thebusiness that has established the toll-free number will bear the cost ofconnecting the call. Typically, the rates charged to businesses forconnecting toll-free calls are actually higher that what a user wouldhave paid for the same call. However, it is still worthwhile to thebusiness, because it ensures that their customers will always be able toreach them.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, some businesses, such as business one 120 andbusiness two 122 maintain multiple separate telephone lines. This allowsthe business to conduct multiple simultaneous telephone calls. Thebusiness must pay to acquire and maintain multiple separate telephonenumbers, one for each of the multiple lines that it needs.

Also, some businesses, such as business three 124 and business four 126can maintain a separate connection to a data network 110, and thosebusinesses can conduct telephone calls through the data network 110. Asingle data line connection could be capable of carrying multiplesimultaneous telephone calls. However, if the business wants to have theability to conduct multiple separate telephone calls through a dataconnection, the business will still have to pay to acquire and maintainmultiple separate telephone numbers, one for each line.

In some instances, a telephone carrier could provide both a regulartelephone line connection to a business, and a separate data lineconnection to the business through a data network 110. Business three124 is an example of this sort of an arrangement.

There are various existing computer and telephony systems that providevoice services to users. These voice services can be speech recognitionand touchtone enabled. Examples of such services include voice mail,voice activated dialing, customer care services, and the provision ofaccess to Internet content via telephone.

One common example of a system that provides voice services is anInteractive Voice Response (IVR) system. In prior art systems, a userwould typically use a telephone to call in to a central computer systemwhich provides voice services via an IVR system. The IVR system deployedon the central computer system would then launch voice services, forinstance by playing an audio clip containing a menu of choices to theuser via the telephone line connection. The user could then make aselection by speaking a response. The spoken response would be receivedat the central computer system via the telephone line connection, andthe central computer system would interpret the spoken response usingspeech recognition techniques. Based on the user's response, the IVRsystem would then continue to perform application logic to take furtheraction. The further action could involve playing another menu of choicesto the user over the telephone line, obtaining and playing informationto the user, connecting the user to a third party or a live operator, orany of a wide range of other actions.

The ability to provide voice services has been quite limited by thenature of the systems that provide such services. In the known systemsthat provide voice services using relatively complex speech recognitionprocessing, the voice applications are performed on high end computingdevices located at a central location. Voice Application processingrequires a high end centralized computer system because these systemsare provisioned to support many simultaneous users.

Because complex voice application processing must be provided using ahigh end computer system at a central location, and because users arealmost never co-located with the high end computer system, a user isalmost always connected to the central computer system via a telephonecall. The call could be made using a typical telephone or cell phoneover the PSTN, or the call might be placed via a VoIP-type (Skype, SIP)connection. Regardless, the user must establish a dedicated, persistentvoice connection to the central computer system to access the voiceservices.

In a typical prior art architecture for a centralized voice servicesplatform, the speech recognition functions are performed at a centralcomputer system. A user telephone is used to place a telephone call tothe central voice services platform via a telephone network. Thetelephone network could be a traditional PSTN, or a VoIP based system.Either way, the user would have to establish the telephone call to thecentral voice service platform via a telephone carrier.

The prior art centralized voice services platforms, which depend on atelephony infrastructure for connection to users, are highly inflexiblefrom a deployment standpoint. The configurations of hardware andsoftware are all concentrated on a small number of high end servers.These configurations are technically complex and hard to monitor,manage, and change as business conditions dictate. Furthermore, thedeployment of existing IVR system architectures, and the subsequentprovisioning of users and voice applications to them, requires extensiveconfiguration management that is often performed manually. Also, changesin the configuration or deployment of IVR services within extant IVRarchitectures often require a full or partial suspension of serviceduring any reconfiguration or deployment effort.

Further, cost structures and provisioning algorithms that provision thecapabilities of such a centralized voice services platform make itvirtually impossible to ensure that a caller can always access thesystem when the system is under heavy usage. If the system wereconfigured with such a large number of telephone line ports that allpotential callers would always be connected to access contrasting typesof voice services, with different and overlapping peak utilizationhours, the cost of maintaining all the hardware and software elementswould be prohibitive. Instead, such centralized voice services platformsare configured with a reasonable number of telephone ports that resultin a cost-effective operating structure. The operator of the system mustaccept that callers may sometimes be refused access. Also, system usersmust accept that they will not receive an “always on” service.

Prior art centralized voice services platforms also tend to be“operator-centric.” In other words, multiple different service providersprovide call-in voice services platforms, but each service providerusually maintains their own separate platform. If the user has called into a first company's voice services platform, he would be unable toaccess the voice services of a second company's platform. In order toaccess the second company's voice services platform, the user mustterminate his call to the first company, and then place a new call tothe second company's platform. Thus, obtaining access to multipledifferent IVR systems offered by different companies is not convenient.

In addition to the above-described drawbacks of the currentarchitecture, the shared nature of the servers in a centralized voiceservices platform limits the ability of the system to providepersonalized voice applications to individual users. Similarly, thearchitecture of prior art IVR systems limit personalization even forgroups of users. Because of these factors, the prior art systems havelimitations on their ability to dynamically account for individual userpreferences or dynamically personalize actual voice applications on thefly. This is so because it becomes very hard for a centralized system tocorrelate the user with their access devices and environment, to therebyoptimize a voice application that is tuned specifically for anindividual user. Further, most centralized systems simply lackuser-specific data.

With the prior art voice services platforms, it was difficult to developefficient mechanisms for billing the users. Typically, the telephonecarrier employed by the user would bill the user for calls made to thevoice services platform. The amount of the charges could be determinedin many different ways. For instance, the telephone carrier could simplybill the user a flat rate for each call to the voice services platform.Alternatively, the telephone carrier could bill the user a per-minutecharge for being connected to the voice services platform. In stillother methods, the voice services platform could calculate user chargesand then inform the carrier about how much to bill the user. Regardlessof how the charges are calculated, it would still be necessary for thetelephony carrier to perform the billing, collect the money, and thenpay some amount to the voice service platform.

Prior art voice services platforms also had security issues. In manyinstances, it was difficult to verify the identity of a caller. If thevoice services platform was configured to give the user confidentialinformation, or the ability to transfer or spend money, security becomesan important consideration.

Typically, when a call is received at the voice services platform, theonly information the voice services platform has about the call is acaller ID number. Unfortunately, the caller ID number can be falsified.Thus, even that small amount of information could not be used as areliable means of identifying the caller. For these reasons, callersattempting to access sensitive information or services were usuallyasked to provide identifying data that could be compared to a databaseof security information. While this helps, it still does not guaranteethat the caller is the intended user, since the identifying data couldbe provided by anybody.

Some prior art voice services platforms were used to send audio messagesto users via their telephones. The central voice services platform wouldhave a pre-recorded audio message that needed to be played to multipleusers. The platform would call each of the users, and once connected toa user, would play the audio message. However, when it was necessary tocontact large numbers of users, it could take a considerable amount oftime to place all the calls. The number of simultaneous calls that canbe placed by the centralized voice services platform is obviouslylimited by the number telephone ports it has. Further, in someinstances, the PSTN was incapable of simultaneously connecting calls onall the available line ports connected to the voice services platform.In other words, the operators found that when they were trying to make alarge number of outgoing calls on substantially all of their outgoinglines, the PSTN sometimes could not simultaneously connect all of thecalls to the called parties. Further, when a voice services platform isdelivering audio messages in this fashion, they tie up all the telephoneport capacity, which prevents users from calling in to use the service.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates elements of existing telephone connection systemsthat can be used to connect users to businesses;

FIG. 2 illustrates elements of a system embodying the invention;

FIG. 3 illustrates elements of another system embodying the invention;

FIG. 4 illustrates elements of another system embodying the invention;

FIG. 5 illustrates steps of a method embodying the invention; and

FIG. 6 illustrates steps of another method embodying the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The inventors have developed new systems and methods of deliveringvoice-based services to users which make use of some aspects of thebasic architecture illustrated in FIG. 2. A full description of thesystems and methods created by the inventors is provided in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/514,116, which was filed on Sep. 1, 2006.

The systems and methods created by the inventors are intended to provideusers with speech and touch tone enabled Voice Applications foraccessing various services and for performing various functions. In thisrespect, the systems, devices and methods embodying the invention servesome of the same functions as prior art centralized voice servicesplatforms. The systems and methods can also be used to provide the sametype of call forwarding discussed above, but at a lower cost, and withgreater flexibility. In addition, the systems and methods created by theinventors make it possible to provide users with a whole host ofadditional call handling and call notification functions that would havebeen impossible with prior systems.

Unlike the prior art voice services platforms, systems and methodsembodying the invention utilize a highly distributed processingarchitecture to deliver the services. As will be explained below, theunderlying architecture and the distributed nature of systems andmethods embodying the invention allow the inventive systems to providethe same services as the prior art systems, but with better performance,at a significantly reduced cost, and with far fewer limitations. Inaddition, systems and methods embodying the invention avoid or solvemany of the drawbacks of the prior systems. Further, because of the waysystems and methods embodying the invention operate, they can providenew and additional services that could never have been provided by theprior art systems. Systems and methods embodying the invention alsoallow for much better personalization of delivered services, and theyallow existing services to be upgraded, improved, or furtherpersonalized much more easily than was possible with the prior artsystems.

Systems and methods embodying the invention are intended to deliver orprovide Voice Applications (hereinafter, “VAs”) for a user. Beforebeginning a discussion of systems and methods that embody the invention,we should start by discussing what a VA is, and what a VA can do for auser. Unfortunately, this is somewhat difficult, because VAs can take awide variety of different forms, and can accomplish a wide variety ofdifferent tasks.

A VA provides a user with the ability to use their natural voice, touchtone sequences or other forms of user input, to access and/or control anapplication, to obtain information, to perform a certain function, or toaccomplish other tasks. Although the majority of the followingdescription assumes that a user will interact with a system embodyingthe invention, at least in part, via speech, other forms of userinteraction fall within the scope and spirit of the invention. Forinstance, developing technologies that allow a user to make selectionsfrom visual menus via hand or eye movements could also for the basis ofa user interaction protocol. Likewise, developing technologies that areable to sense a user's brainwave patterns could form the basis of a userinteraction protocol. Thus, systems and methods embodying the inventionare not limited to speech-based user interfaces.

A VA could be specifically developed to utilize the benefits of speechrecognition-based input processing. For instance, a VA could bedeveloped to access, play and manipulate voice mail via speech commands.Alternatively, a VA could act as an extension or an enhancement oftraditional GUI-like applications to allow the traditional applicationsto be accessed and/or controlled by speech commands. For instance, a VAcould allow the user to call up specific e-mail messages on a displayvia spoken commands, and the user would then read the e-mail messages onthe display.

In some instances, a VA could act like one of the interactive voiceresponse systems that are accessible to users on prior art centralizedvoice services platforms. A VA could act in exactly the same way as aprior art IVR system to allow a user to obtain information or accomplishvarious functions using a speech enabled interface. However, because ofthe advantages of the new architecture, a system embodying the inventioncan perform voice applications that would have been impossible toperform on prior art centralized voice services platforms. Other VAscould perform a wide variety of other tasks. In most instances, the userwould be able to accomplish functions or obtain information by simplyspeaking voice commands.

With the above general description of a Voice Application (VA) asbackground, we will now provide an overview of systems and methodsembodying the invention. The following overview will make reference toFIG. 2, which depicts a high-level diagram of how a system embodying theinvention would be organized.

As shown in FIG. 2, preferred embodiments of the invention would makeuse of an optional telephone network 230 and a data network 220. Thetelephone network 230 could be a traditional PSTN, a VoIP system, apeer-to-peer telephone network, a cellular telephone network, or anyother network that allows a user to place and receive telephone calls.The data network 220 could be the Internet, or possibly a private orinternal local area network or intranet.

In some instances, users would only be physically coupled to a datanetwork, such as the Internet. In this case, the user's on-siteequipment could enable them to place VoIP telephone calls via the datanetwork. Such VoIP telephone calls might make use of the PSTN, or theentire call might be handled over the data network. Regardless, inpreferred embodiments, the user would be capable of simultaneouslymaintaining a telephone connection and sending and receiving data.

Systems embodying the invention, as shown in FIG. 2, will be referred toas having a Distributed Voice Application Execution System Architecture(hereinafter, a “DVAESA”). Thus, the term DVAESA refers to a system andmethod of providing voice application services in a distributed fashion,over a network, to a customer device. Such a system is closely managedby a centralized system to, among other things, ensure optimumperformance, availability and usability. In some of the descriptionswhich follow, there are references to “DVAES-enabled” equipment or localdevices/device. This means equipment and/or software which is configuredto act as a component of a DVAESA embodying the invention.

A user would utilize an audio interface device to access the DVAESA. Inthe embodiment shown in FIG. 2, a first user's audio interface 200comprises a microphone and speaker. A second user audio interface 201comprises a telephone. The telephone 201 is also connected to the sameuser local device 210 as the first user audio interface. A third user'saudio interface 202 could also comprise a telephone. This telephone 202could be a regular wired telephone, a wireless telephone or even acellular telephone. The DVAES-enabled devices may support multiple audiointerface devices, and the multiple devices could all be of the sametype, or multiple different types of user audio interfaces could all beconnected to the same local device.

Each user would also make use of a local DVAES-enabled device that wouldact to deliver or provide VAs to the user through the user's audiointerface. The local DVAES-enabled devices would include a voice browsercapable of performing voice applications that have been distributed overthe network, some of which may have speech recognition functions. Suchvoice applications could be pre-delivered to the local DVAES-enableddevice, or the voice applications could be fetched in real time. Suchvoice applications are personalized to the user and optimized for thedevice. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, each of the user localdevices 210, 212, 203 are coupled to the respective user audiointerfaces, and to the data network.

In some embodiments of the invention, a user audio device and aDVAES-enabled device could be integrated into a single electronicdevice. For instance, a PDA with cell phone capability could alsoincorporate all of the hardware and software elements necessary for thedevice to also act as the DVAES-enabled equipment. Thus, a single userdevice could function as both the DVAES-enabled equipment thatcommunicates with the network, and as the user audio interface. The userlocal device 203 shown in FIG. 2 is intended to illustrate this sort ofan embodiment.

Also, in FIG. 2, various lines connect each of the individual elements.These lines are only intended to represent a functional connectionbetween the two devices. These lines could represent hard-wiredconnections, wireless connections, infrared communications, or any othercommunications medium that allows the devices to interact. In someinstances the connections could be continuous, and in others theconnection could be intermittent. For instance, an audio interface and auser local device could be located within a user's vehicle. In such acase, the local device within the vehicle might only be connected to thenetwork through a cellular telephone network or through another type ofwireless network when such connectivity is required to provide a userwith services. In a similar embodiment, the local device in the user'svehicle might only link up to the network when the vehicle is parked atthe user's home, or some other location, where a wireless connection canbe implemented.

Also, the user audio interface 202 shown in FIG. 2 could be a cell phonethat is capable of interacting with the normal cellular telephonenetwork. However, the cellular telephone might also be capable ofinteracting with the user local device 212 via a wired or wirelessconnection. Further, the cellular telephone 202 might be configured suchthat it acts like a regular cellular telephone when the user is awayfrom home (and is not connected to the local device 212). But thecellular telephone might switch to a different operating mode when it isconnected to the local device 212 (when the user is at home), such thatall incoming calls to that cell phone are initially received andprocessed by the local device 212. The DVAESA also would include somenetwork-based elements. As shown in FIG. 2, the network-based elementscould include a VA rendering agent 240, a network storage device 242 anda system manager 244. Each of these network-based elements would beconnected to the data network.

Also, although they would not technically be considered a part of theDVAESA, there might also be some third party service providers 250, 252which are also connected to the data network, and/or to the telephonenetwork. As explained below, the VAs may enable the users to interactwith such third party service providers via the data and telephonenetworks.

When a DVAESA as shown in FIG. 2 is configured, VAs would be “rendered”by the VA rendering agent 240, the output of the rendering process wouldbe rendered VAs. These rendered VAs may be stored on the Network StorageDevice 242, or be distributed or delivered to a DVAES-enabled Device.“Rendering” refers to a process in which a generic VA is personalizedfor a particular user and/or one or more particular DVAES-Devices togenerate Rendered VAs. The system manager 244 could instruct the VArendering agent 240 to render a VA for a particular user, or suchrendering request could originate from the DVAES-enabled Device. TheDVAESA network data storage element 242 could be used to store genericVA, rendered VAs, or a wide variety of other data and resources (e.g.audio files, grammars etc).

As mentioned above, the VA rendering agent would personalize a genericVA during the rendering process. This could take into account personaltraits of the individual user, information about the configuration ofthe local device(s), or a wide variety of other things, as will beexplained in more detail below. The information used to personalize a VAduring the rendering process could be provided to the VA rendering agentat the time it is instructed to render the VA, or the VA rendering agentcould access the information from various data storage locationsavailable via the data network.

The user's local devices would typically be inexpensive computingdevices that are capable of running a voice browser and performingspeech recognition capable rendered VAs. Such devices are often referredto as embedded multimedia terminal adaptors (EMTAs) and optical embeddedmultimedia terminal adaptors (OEMTAs). In many instances, the localdevice would be physically present at the user's location, such as ahome or office. In other instances, however, the local device could be avirtual device that is capable of interacting with one or more useraudio interfaces. As mentioned above, the local devices may also storerendered VAs, and then act to perform the rendered VAs to the user'saudio interface. The user local device could be a customer premisedevice that is also used for some other function. For instance, thelocal device could be a cable modem or set-top box that is also used toconnect a television to a cable network, however, the device would alsobe configured to perform VAs for the user via the user's audiointerface.

In one simple embodiment of the invention, a local embedded device 212would be linked to a user's telephone 202. The local device 212 wouldalso be linked to the Internet 220 via a medium to high speedconnection, and possibly to the telephone network 230. The user couldspeak commands into the telephone 202, and those spoken commands wouldbe processed by the local device 212 to determine what the user isrequesting.

The processing and interpretation of a user's spoken commands could beentirely accomplished on the local device 212. In other embodiments, thelocal device might need to consult a speech recognition engine on aremote device, via the data network, to properly interpret a portion ofa spoken command that cannot be understood or interpreted by the localdevice. In still other embodiments, the user's spoken commands could beentirely processed and interpreted by a remote speech recognitionengine. For instance, a recording of the user's spoken commands could berelayed to a remote speech recognition engine, and the speechrecognition engine would then process the spoken commands and send databack the local device indicating what the user is commanding. Even thisprocess could be accomplished in real time such that the user is unawarethat the interpretation of his spoken commands is being accomplished ona remote device.

Because of the greater sophistication that is possible with a systemembodying the invention, if the local device does not understandsomething, it can often ask another question of the user to clarify thesituation. In addition, the local device can offer greatly expandedvocabulary and speech processing by enlisting the assistance of networkagents. For all these reasons, a consumer electronic device that iscoupled into the DVAES architecture can provide a much moresophisticated voice application than prior art devices which were notconnected to a network.

Once the spoken command has been interpreted, in some instances, thelocal device 212 may be able to satisfy the user's request. In otherinstances, the local device 212 might need to request information from aVA Rendering Agent 240 to satisfy the user's request. If that is thecase, the local device 212 would send a query over the data network 220to the VA Rendering Agent 240 for some type of content. The requestedcontent would be returned to the local device 212, and the local device212 would then provide the content to the user via the user's telephone202. In other instances, the local device may be able to query othernetwork-connected elements which are not a part of the DVAESArchitecture, and those other elements would return the requested datato the local device so that the data could be delivered to the user viathe audio interface.

Depending on the VA being performed, the functions that are performed inresponse to a user request may not involve playing audio information tothe user via the user's audio interface. For instance, the local devicecould be performing a VA relating to accessing e-mail. In this instance,a user's spoken request could cause the local device to act in a mannerthat ultimately results in the user's e-mail messages being shown on adisplay screen. In this instance, although the user makes use of aspeech-based interface to obtain information and/or perform a certainfunction, the ultimate result is not the playback of audio, but ratherdisplay of an e-mail message.

The end result of a user request could take many other forms, such asthe local device causing a certain action to be taken. For instance, theuser might speak a request that causes the user's home air conditioningsystem to be turned on. The list of possible actions that could beenabled by the local device is virtually endless. But the point is thatthe local device is able to provide a speech-enabled interface to theuser, via the audio interface, to allow the user to accomplish a task.

In another simple embodiment, the user might pick up his telephone 202and speak a request to be connected to another person's telephone. Avoice application performed on the local device would interpret theuser's spoken request. This could be done on the local device, or thevoice application could utilize remote assets to accomplish the speechrecognition. Some or all of the speech recognition could occur on theremote assets. The voice application would then take steps to place atelephone call to the person identified by the user. This might involveconnecting the user via the telephone network 230, or connecting theuser to the requested party via a VoIP call placed over the data network220.

It is also worth noting that when a user is connected to the DVAESarchitecture, the VAs provided by the system can completely replace thedial tone that people have come to associate with their telephones. Themoment that a user picks up his telephone, he will be launched directlyinto a voice application that is provided by the system. In the past,this may have been technically possible, but it was always accomplishedby making use of the traditional phone system. For instance, one of theprior art centralized voice services platforms would have been capableof ensuring that the moment a user lifts his telephone, that user wasimmediately connected to a central voice services platform that wouldguide the remainder of the user's experience. But this was alwaysaccomplished by establishing an immediate voice channel between theuser's telephone and the central voice services platform. And toaccomplish that, it was necessary to involve the telephone carrier thatwould link the user's telephone to the voice services platform. Incontrast, with the DVAES architecture, one no longer needs to make anyuse of the telephone carriers to provide this sort of a service. And, asnoted above, the user can still be easily connected to the regulartelephone network if he needs to place a call.

In the same vein, in the past, whenever a user wanted to have a thirdparty service answer his telephone calls, as in traditional voice mailsystems, it was necessary to involve the carrier in routing such callsto a third party service. Now, when a call is made to the user'stelephone, the DVAES architecture makes it possible to answer the call,and take voice mail recordings, without any further involvement of thecarrier. Here again, the DVAES architecture makes it possible toeliminate the services of the telephone carrier.

In both the examples outlined above, the involvement of the carriernecessarily increased the cost of providing the voice services. Becausethe carrier can be eliminated, the same sorts of voice services can beprovided to a user for a significantly reduced cost. And, as explainedbelow, the services can be delivered with greater performance and withnew and better features.

In some embodiments, rendered Voice Application processing is performedon the local device and the associated the voice recognition functionsmay also be performed on the local device. For this reason, there is noneed to establish a dedicated duplex audio link with a remote high endcomputer. Also, even in those instances where a portion of the voiceapplication processing is performed by a remote device, and/or whereprocessing and interpretation of spoken commands is processed by aremote device, the communications necessary to accomplish these actionscan be made via data packets that traverse a data network. Thus, hereagain, there is no need to establish a dedicated duplex audio link witha remote high end computer to provide the requested services.

Also, because the local embedded device is coupled to a data networksuch as the Internet, it can rapidly obtain Rendered Voice Applicationsand associated data from various remote sources in order to satisfy userrequests. For these reasons, the simple embedded local device allows oneto provide the user with speech recognition enabled Voice Applicationswithout the need to create and maintain a high end speech serviceplatform with multiple telephone line access equipment.

As noted above, the local device could also use the network to obtainaccess to various other physical elements to effect certain physicalactions, such as with the home air conditioner example given above. Inthis context, the other physical elements could be connected to thenetwork, or the local device could have a local connection to physicalelements that are also located on the user's premises. For instance, thelocal device could have a hard-wired or wireless connection to manydifferent elements in a user's home or office that allow the localdevice to control operations of the physical elements. In otherembodiments, the piece of physical equipment could act as the localdevice itself.

One obvious advantage of a DVAESA over prior art voice service platformsis that a DVAESA embodying the invention can provide VAs to userswithout any involvement of a PSTN, VoIP, Peer-Peer carrier. The instantthe user picks up his telephone handset, he will be interacting with theDVAESA, not the telephone system. A large number of VAs could beaccomplished without ever involving a telephone carrier as the VoiceApplication is delivered and provided on the local device. Because theuser can directly access the DVAESA without making a telephone call, theoperator of the DVAESA will not need to pay a telephone carrier in orderto provide the service to users.

As noted above, if the user wishes to place a telephone call, this canbe easily accomplished. But there is no need to use a telephone carrieras an intermediary between the user and the DVAESA. This has multiplepositive benefits.

Also, for a multitude of different reasons, a DVAESA will be lessexpensive to deploy and operate than the prior art central voiceservices platforms. To begin with, because the DVAESA can provideservices to users without a telephone link, the DVAESA operator nolonger need to purchase and maintain multiple telephone line ports intothe system.

Also, the types of equipment used by the DVAESA are inherently lessexpensive to deploy and manage than the equipment used in a centralvoice services platform. A DVAESA embodying the invention usesrelatively inexpensive network appliances that can be located anywhere,and that can be deliberately distributed over a wide area to enhancereliability of the system. In contrast, a central voice servicesplatform requires expensive and specialized telecom equipment liketelecom switches and IVR servers. The central voice services platformsalso require more intensive management and provisioning than a DVAESA,and this management must be provided by highly skilled personnel as mostof the equipment used is highly proprietary in nature. In contrast, theDVAESA is largely managed by an automated management system.

A prior art central voice services platform is only able tosimultaneously service a limited number of users As noted above, in theprior art central voice services platforms, a dedicated voice link, viaa telephone call, is maintained for each connected user. Once all linesare connected to users, no additional users are able to access thesystem. Hence the maximum number of simultaneous users that can besupported at any given time is equal to the lesser of the number ofaccess lines or the number of associated telephony/IVR ports an operatormaintains.

In contrast, a DVAESA embodying the invention has a very high limit onthe number of users that can be simultaneously serviced. In a DVAESAembodying the invention, the moment a customer picks up his telephone hewill be connected to the system. Thus, a DVAESA embodying the inventionis “always on.” Also, much of the interactions between the user and thesystem are handled directly by the local device on the customerpremises. If the local device cannot immediately service a user request,and additional information is needed, the local device may make asynchronous or asynchronous request over the Internet. Typically, theinformation will be quite rapidly returned and played to the user. Thus,even if there is a small delay, the user is nevertheless still connectedthe voice services system.

With the DVAESA model, the same number of server assets can handle datarequests from a much larger number of users as compared to the prior artcentral voice services platform. This is also another reason why aDVAESA is less expensive to deploy and maintain than a prior art centralvoice services platform.

In addition to being easier and less expensive to deploy and maintain, aDVAESA embodying the invention can also scale up much more quickly andat a lower cost as new users are added to the system. To begin with,because the DVAESA does not require dedicated telephone lines tooperate, there is no cost associated with adding additional telephoneports to the system to accommodate additional users. Likewise, as newusers are added, there are no new additional telecommunications expensesfor more connect time or access. In addition, for the reasons notedabove, the equipment used by the system is far less expensive than theequipment used in a central voice services platform to service the samenumber of users. Thus, adding any new equipment and users is lessexpensive for a DVAESA. Moreover, because it requires less equipment toservice the same number of users in a DVAESA, there is much lessequipment to purchase and maintain for each additional 1000 users.

A DVAESA embodying the invention is inherently more reliable than aprior art central voice services platform. Because the assets of a priorart system are typically located in a few physical locations, and aretied to physical phone lines, power outages and other physical problemsare more likely to prevent users from being able to use the system. Incontrast, a DVAESA can have its equipment distributed over a much widerarea to reduce these problems. The points of a failure of a DVAESA canbe highly localized and it is very cost effective to replicate DVAESAequipment.

Moreover, the underlying nature of the DVAESA makes it easy to connectmultiple redundant servers to the network, so than in the event one ormore assets fail, redundant assets can step in to take over thefunctions of the failed equipment. This was difficult to do in prior artcentral voice services platforms, and even when it was possible toprovide redundant capabilities, the cost of providing the redundantequipment was much higher than with a DVAESA.

In addition, a prior art central voice service platform needs atelephone carrier to provide access to the users. If the telephonecarrier has a service outage, the prior art system cannot function. Incontrast, a DVAESA does not have any reliance on a telephone carrier.

The only network required to provide the DVAESA is the data network likethe Internet. The user in most cases will not experience an interruptionto access to the voice services of a DVAESA, even if there is an outagethat disables the local device's access to the Internet. The localdevice could potentially perform some of the applications withoutconnecting to the network. This indicates that for some VoiceApplications in the DVAESA, it may be sufficient for the local device tohave intermittent access to the Internet.

The architecture of a DVAESA makes it inherently able to deliver certaintypes of VAs with vastly improved performance. To use one concreteexample, as noted above, when a central voice services application isattempting to deliver the same audio message to large number of users,the central voice services application must place a telephone call toeach user, using a dedicated phone line, and deliver the message.Because the central voice services platform only has a limited number ofoutgoing lines, it can take a significant amount of time to place allthose calls.

In contrast, in a DVAESA embodying the invention, it is not necessary toplace any telephone calls to deliver the audio message to users.Instead, a server which is part of the system can push instructions toplay the audio message, and the message itself (the message could bestored in advance of when the event to deliver the message occurs), toeach of the local devices, and the local devices can then play themessages for each individual user. In variations on this theme, theserver might only send the instruction to play the message, along with areference to where a copy of the audio message is stored. Each localdevice could then download a copy of the message from the indicatedlocation and play it for the user. Regardless, it would be possible forthe DVAESA architecture to deliver the audio message to all the users ina small fraction of the time that it would take the prior art centralvoice services platform to accomplish the job.

Moreover, as also explained above, while the prior art central voiceservices platform is making calls to deliver audio messages to aplurality of users, it is tying up it's phone lines, and thus it'scapacity to allow users to call in for services. In contrast, when aDVAESA is delivering audio messages to a plurality of users, the usersare still able to access their voice services for other purposes.

A DVAESA embodying the invention also makes it possible to deliver manynew voice applications and services that could never have been providedby the prior art central voice services platform. In most cases, it isthe underlying differences in the architecture of a DVAESA embodying theinvention, as compared to the prior art voice services platforms, whichmake these new services possible.

For example, a user could configure a voice application to runconstantly in the background on a local device, and then take a certainaction upon the occurrence of a specified event. So, for instance, theuser could set up a voice application to break into an existingtelephone conversation to notify him if a particular stock's tradingprice crosses a threshold. In this scenario, the voice application wouldperiodically check the stock price. If the threshold is crossed, thevoice application could cause any existing telephone call that the useris on to be temporarily suspended, and the voice application would thenplay the notification. The voice application could then return thecaller to his call. This sort of a voice application would also be verycomplicated to provide under the prior art central voice servicesplatform.

The graceful integration of advertising messages is another example ofhow a DVAESA embodying the invention can provide services that wereimpossible to provide with prior art central voice service platforms. Asan example, if the user lifted the telephone and spoke a command thatasked for options about ordering a pizza, the system could respond witha prompt that said, “to be connected to Pizza Shop A, say one; to beconnected to Pizza Shop B, say two. By the way, Pizza Shop A is having atwo for one special today.” Thus, the advertising message could begracefully incorporated into the played response. Also, the advertisingmessage would be highly context relevant, which would make it moreinteresting to advertisers. Thus, advertising revenue could be collectedby the operator of the DVAESA system.

A DVAESA embodying the invention could also be used to rapidly collectdata from a very large number of users in ways that would have beenimpossible with prior art central voice services platforms. In thisexample, assume that a television program is currently airing, andduring the program, viewers are invited to vote on a particular issue.In prior art systems, the users would typically place a telephone callto a central voice services platform and make a voice vote. However, asnoted earlier, prior art voice services platforms are only able to talkto a limited number of callers at the same time because the callers mustbe connected by dedicated phone lines.

In a DVAESA embodying the invention, the user might be able to pick upthe phone and say, “I want to vote on issue X.” The system would alreadyknow that viewers of a television program had been invited to place avote, so the system could immediately take the user's voice vote. Thesystem could also tabulate the votes from all users making similar voicevotes, and then provide the voting results to the television showproducers in real time. Because so little actual information is beingexchanged, and the exchanges are made over the Internet, thousands, andperhaps even millions of votes could be received and tabulated in a veryshort period of time. This would have been impossible with prior artcentral voice services platforms. Furthermore, a DVAES can distribute afully featured voice application that not only plays the message, butfurther solicits feedback from the user, optionally tailors theinteraction with the user, and may record any user feedback orresponses. Furthermore, if the producers of the television show werewilling to pay a fee to the operator of the DVAESA, the system could beconfigured such that as soon as viewers are invited to cast a vote, andfor the duration of the voting period, anytime that a user of the DVAESApicks up his telephone to access the system, the system would firstrespond with the question, “would you like to vote on issue X?” Thiswould be yet another way to derive advertising or promotional revenuefrom the DVAESA.

There are countless other ways to exploit the architecture of a DVAESAembodying the invention to accomplish tasks and to perform VAs thatwould have been impossible using the prior art central voice servicesplatforms. The above examples are merely illustrative.

A DVAESA embodying the invention also allows for much greaterpersonalization of the voice applications themselves than was possiblewith prior art central voice services platforms. In addition, thearchitecture allows the users themselves to control many aspects of thispersonalization.

To begin with, as explained above, in a DVAESA a VA Rendering Agent isresponsible for customizing voice applications, and then delivering thecustomized voice applications to the local devices at the customersites. Thus, the basic architecture assumes that each user will receiveand run personalized versions of voice applications. This differencealone makes it much, much easier to provide users with personalizedvoice applications than prior art central voice services platforms.

The VA Rendering Agent could personalize a voice application to takeinto account many different things. For instance, the VA Rendering Agentcould access a database of user personal information to ensure that a VAtakes into account things like the user's name, his sex, age, home city,language and a variety of other personal information. The VA RenderingAgent could also access information about the capabilities of the localdevice at the customer's location that will be providing the VA, andpossibly also the type of audio interface that the user has connected tothe local device. The VA Rendering Agent could then ensure that thecustomized version of the VA that is provided to the user's local deviceis able to seamlessly and efficiently run on the local hardware andsoftware. The VA Rendering Agent could also take into account userpreferences that the user himself has specified. For instance, the VAcould be customized to play audio prompts with a certain type of voicespecified by the user.

Another important way that VAs could be personalized is by having theDVAESA track how the user is interacting with the system. For Example ifthe user has a certain type of accent or has a certain pattern of use orhas a certain type of background noise, the VA Rendering Agent couldtake these factors into account on an on going basis to ensure that thecustomized VAs that are sent to the user are tuned to the user. Thesystem might also note that whenever a three choice menu is played tothe user, the user always makes the third selection. In that case, theVA Rendering Agent might be directed to re-render the VA so that the VApresents the third option first, instead of last.

There are any number of other ways that VA's could be customized orpersonalized to take into account aspects of individual users. And thesecustomizations are easily and automatically accomplished by configuringthe VA Rendering Agents to automatically incorporate thesepersonalizations when delivering VAs for users. Because the DVAESA isconfigured so that each individual user may have his own versions ofVAs, preferably stored on his local devices cache, this personalizationis not difficult to accomplish. Such personalizations are complimentedby the continuous analytics process that is being performed on DVAESAdata. This data is collected during the on going functioning of thesystem and is provided by all DVAESA components. After collection, thedata is analyzed, and the results of the analysis are used tocontinuously tune and improve the functioning of the system on anindividual user-by-user basis.

A DVAESA also allows for better, more direct billing for delivery orusage of services. Because there is no telephone company acting as anintermediary, the operator of a DVAESA can directly bill users for useof the system. Also, the way the system is configured, the user canselect individual services, which are then provided to him by renderinga VA and loading it on the user's local equipment. Thus, the user cantailor his services to his liking, and the operator of the DVAESA has aneasy time tracking what services the user has. For all these reasons, itis much easier to bill the user for use of the services.

Another benefit that flows from the DVAESA model is the ability of auser to access services provided from two different DVAESA operators ona single piece of local equipment. As will be explained in more detailbelow, a first DVAESA operator could load a first set of VAs onto theuser's local equipment, and a second DVAESA operator could load a secondset of VAs onto the same piece of operator equipment. For instance, thefirst DVAESA operator could be one that provides the user with servicesrelated to his business, and the second DVAESA operator could be onethat provides the user with services relating to the user's personallife. There is no inherent conflict in both having two different sets ofVAs loaded onto the local device. And each DVAESA operator canthereafter maintain and update their respective VAs. Likewise, the usercan cause both sets of VAs to be loaded on a first device at his office,and a second device at his home. This allows the user to easily andimmediately access services from either operator, regardless of hispresent location. This sort of flexibility would also have beencompletely impossible in prior art central voice services platforms.

A DVAESA can also provide enhanced security measures compared to priorart central voice services platforms. For instance, because the DVAESAis interacting with the user via spoken commands, it would be possibleto verify the identity of a user via a voice print comparison.

In addition, the individual local devices can be identified with uniqueID numbers, and credentials verifying the identity and permissions ofusers and devices can all be created and stored in various locations onthe system. By using these unique identification numbers andcertification files, one can ensure that only authorized users canaccess sensitive information or perform sensitive functions.

Having now provided a broad overview of the how a system embodying theinvention would operate, and the inherent advantages of a DVAESA systemas compared to prior art systems, we will now turn to a slightly morespecific description of the main elements of a DVAESA embodying theinvention, with reference to FIG. 3. In doing so, we will introduce somenew definitions and terminology which will be used throughout theremainder of the detailed description.

A DVAESA would be configured to deploy and utilize one or more VoiceApplication Agents (hereinafter “VAAs”) which themselves enable thedelivery or performance of a VA through a local device that wouldtypically be located in a user's home or office. In some instances, aVAA may be wholly resident on a single local device. In other instances,the functions of a VAA may be split between multiple portions of theoverall system. Likewise, a single local device may only host one VAA.Alternatively, a single local device may host multiple VAAs. Thesevariations, and the flexibility they provide, will be discussed in moredetail below. The important concept is that a VAA is the agent that isresponsible for delivering or performing a VA for the user.

The network 2130 shown in FIG. 3 could be the Internet. However, in someinstances, the network 2130 could be a public or private local network,a WAN, or a Local Area Network. In most instances, however, the network2130 will be the Internet. Also, the network 2130 could also compriseportions of the PSTN, existing cellular telephone networks, cabletelevision networks, satellite networks, or any other system that allowsdata to be communicated between connected assets.

The devices 2110 and 2120 appearing in FIG. 3 would be the localembedded devices that are typically located at a user's home or office.As shown in FIG. 4, in some instances, a local device 2110 could simplybe connected to the user's existing telephone. In other instances, thelocal device could be coupled to a speaker 2007 and microphone 2009 sothat the local device can play audio to the user, and receive spokencommands from the user. In still other embodiments, the local device maybe a standalone telephone, or be included as part of a cellulartelephone, a computing device with wireless access, a PDA thatincorporates a cellular telephone, or some other type of mobile devicethat has access to a data network.

A system embodying the invention also includes components that delivervoice applications, data and other forms of content to the localdevices. These components could include one or more Voice ApplicationServices Systems (hereinafter VASSs). In the system depicted in FIG. 3,there are two VASSs 2140 and 2150. A system embodying the inventioncould have only a single VASS, or could have multiple VASSs.

One of the primary functions of a VASS is to render VAs and to thenprovide VA components to VAAs. In preferred embodiments, a VASS wouldprovide customized VAs components to VAAs, upon demand, so that the VAAscan perform the customized VAs components for the user. The VASSs couldpersonalize generic VAs based on known individual user characteristics,characteristics of the environment in which the VA components will beperformed, information about how a user has previously interacted withthe system, and a wide variety factors. The distribution of thepersonalized VA components to the VAAs could also be accomplished inmultiple different ways.

A system embodying the invention may also include one or more ContentDistribution Services (hereinafter a “CDSs”). This is an optionalcomponent that basically serves as a data storage and contentdistribution facility. If a system embodying the invention includes oneor more CDSs, the CDSs would typically provide network-based caching ofcontent, such as VA components, configurations, DVAESA components, andother shared or frequently used content. The CDSs would be deployedthroughout the network to help reduce network traffic latency, whichbecomes particularly noticeable in any speech interaction system.

The DVAESA components could broadly be identified as a Distributed VoiceApplication Execution System (hereinafter, a “DVAES”), and a DistributedVoice Application Management System (hereinafter, a “DVAMS”) A DVAEScomprises at least a VASS, one or more VAAs, and the underlying hardwareand software platforms.

The system shown in FIG. 3 includes a DVAMS. The DVAMS handles a widevariety of management functions which include registering users,specific items of hardware and other DVAES components, directing therendering, caching, distribution and updating of VAs components,organizing and optimizing the performance of system assets, and multipleother functions. The DVAMS may also include an interface that allows anindividual user to customize how the system will interact with him, andwhat products and services the user wishes to use. The DVAMS would alsoprovide an interface that allows system operators to manually controlvarious aspects of the system.

This brings us back to a more detailed description of how the systemarchitecture described above could be used to connect users tobusinesses at a reduced cost, and with greater ease and flexibility.FIG. 4 illustrates a system embodying the invention that can be used forthis purpose.

As mentioned above, some businesses are already connected to a datanetwork, and they are already configured to conduct telephone calls overa data network connection. Typically, this is accomplished using agateway located at the business, the gateway being coupled to theInternet, or a private data network. Telephone calls are connected tothe business by establishing a VOIP call through the business's gateway.

Using the architecture illustrated in FIG. 4, it is possible tocompletely eliminate the involvement of a telephone carrier, and thetelephone network, in establishing a telephone call between a user and abusiness. In other instances, it is possible to at least connect usersto a business entirely through the data network, without using any ofthe traditional PSTN architecture elements. In both of these instances,it may be possible to reduce the cost of connecting callers to thebusiness.

For instance, in the system illustrated in FIG. 4, telephone one 200 isconnected to the data network 220 through a local device 210. If theuser wishes to place a telephone call with telephone one 200, the usercould dial a telephone number on telephone one 200, and a voiceapplication performed on the local device 210 would configure andconduct an outbound telephone call to the dialed number. As alsomentioned above, the speech recognition functions of the system wouldalso allow the user to simply lift the handset of telephone one 200 andspeak a command to be connected to a particular spoken number. Thesystem would be able to recognize the command, and the numbers spoken bythe user, and the same call could be placed. Further, it would bepossible for the user to speak a command to be connected to a particularparty. In this instance, the voice application performed on the localdevice 210 would be capable of interpreting the user's spoken request,of determining the telephone number of desired party, and of thenplacing the call to that party.

If the user is attempting to reach a telephone that is connected onlythrough the telephone network 230, such as telephone three 204, thetelephone call would be routed from the data network 220 into thetelephone network 230, and then to the called party at telephone three204. Likewise, if the user is attempting to reach corporation Y, thecall would be routed into the data network 220, then into the telephonenetwork 230, and then into corporation Y 304.

If the user is attempting to reach corporation X 302, then the callcould be completed to corporation X in two different ways. First, thecall could be completed through the telephone network 230 as describedabove. Alternatively, call could completely bypass the traditionalelements of the PSTN in the telephone network 230, and the call could beconnected to corporation X through only the data network 220.

It would be necessary for the system to know the IP address being usedby a gateway that Corporation X maintains to receive calls from the datanetwork 220. This information could be obtained in multiple differentways. In some instances, there may be a publically accessible directorythat is accessible via that data network, and which cross-references thebusinesses and the current IP addresses that could be used to completecalls to those businesses. In other instances, the businesses themselvesmight provide this information to the system. Because VOIP calls overthe data network could be completed for a lower cost than what thebusinesses would pay a telephone network 230 to complete the calls, thebusinesses would have a financial incentive to ensure that the systemknows the IP addresses connected with the businesses.

As mentioned above, many businesses maintain toll free numbers thattheir customers user to reach the businesses. And as also mentionedabove, when a caller uses a toll free number to reach a business, thecaller pays nothing and the business pays all charges associated withthe call. Those charges are typically greater than what the businesswould pay to simply receive a normally dialed telephone call.

If a user dials corporation X's toll free number on telephone one 200, avoice application performed on local device 210 would be responsible foroutdialing the call. Normally, the voice application would connect thecall to the telephone network 230, the call could be routed tocorporation X through the telephone network 230, and corporation X wouldbe responsible for paying a telephone carrier to connect the call.

However, with a system embodying the invention, it would be possible fora user to be connected to the business through the data network 220,without the involvement of the elements of a traditional PSTN, even whenthe user dials a business' toll free telephone number. To make thispossible, the voice application performed on the local device 210 wouldneed to know that corporation X can be reached entirely through the datanetwork 220. Also, when a user dials the toll free telephone number fora business reachable through the data network 220, the voice applicationwould need to set the telephone call up entirely through the datanetwork 220, instead of through the telephone network 230.

To make all of this possible, the voice application would need to check,each time that a user dials a toll free number, to determine if thebusiness connected with the toll free number is reachable through thedata network. Here again, their may be a publically available directorythat cross-references businesses, and their toll free numbers, to the IPaddresses of the gateways maintained by those businesses. If a voiceapplication consults this directory before placing a call to a toll freenumber, and finds that the business connected with the dialed toll freenumber is reachable through the data network, the voice applicationcould connect the call through the data network, and the gatewaymaintained by the business, instead of through the telephone network230. Thereby saving the business the charges that it would have paid toa telephone carrier for completing the toll free call.

Because of the lower cost of completing a call to a business in thisfashion, the businesses may be willing to pay the system for connectingthe call through the data network 220, instead of through the telephonenetwork 230. A system embodying the invention could invite businesses toregister for this as a service. And because businesses would have afinancial incentive to ensure that calls are connected through the datanetwork, one would expect businesses to register for this service. Partof registering for the service might be an agreement to pay the systemfor connecting calls through the data network, instead of through thetelephone network. And so long as the charges paid to the system arelower than the charged the businesses would have to pay to a telephonecarrier, one would expect the businesses to readily agree. Thus,connecting calls in this manner could provide a stream of revenue forthe system.

Once multiple corporations have provided their destination IP addressesto the system, the system would be able to monitor when users areattempting to reach those corporations. This could be done by notingwhen a caller asks to be connected to one of the corporations usingvoice commands, by noting when users ask to be connected to a toll-freenumber of one of the corporations via voice commands, and by noting whena user hard dials a toll free number of one of the corporations. In allthese instances, rather than placing a call through the telephonenetwork 230, the system would instead connect the call to thecorporation via the data network.

With a system configured as described above, the businesses would savethe charges that would have otherwise been paid to a telephone carrier.But, in addition, connecting calls in this fashion would allowbusinesses to reduce the total number of separate telephone lines thebusiness maintains to speak with customers. If a portion of the callsreceived from customers are delivered over the data network, one wouldexpect the volume of calls received over the telephone network 230 todecline. Generally speaking, it will be less expensive to maintain theequipment used to receive a certain volume of calls over the datanetwork 220, as compared to the cost of paying a telephone carrier todeliver the same volume of calls over the telephone network.

FIG. 4 also illustrates a user mobile computing device 250 whichincludes a cellular telephone. This device also includes a wireless IPtransceiver that is capable of connecting to a wireless router. Whensuch a device is within range of a wireless router that is connected tothe data network 220, the IP transceiver would connect to the wirelessrouter, and the device would also operate as both a local device and anaudio interface. Thus, the mobile computing device would allow the userto utilize all of the services as other system users. And this wouldinclude the ability to place a call to a business via the data network220, as opposed to through the telephone network 230. Thus, a businesscould also receive a call from a user of the mobile computing device250, even when the caller dials the business' toll free number, withoutthe need to pay a telephone carrier for completing the call.

FIG. 5 illustrates steps of a method embodying the invention. The methodstarts in step S502 where a voice application running on a local devicewould receive an instruction to place a telephone call to a toll freenumber. A user could communicate these instructions to the voiceapplication in any one of multiple different ways. For instance, theuser could simply dial the telephone number on a telephone which isconnected to the local device. In alternate embodiments, the user couldspeak a command to place a telephone call to a spoken number, and thevoice application would interpret the spoken instruction and act uponit. In other embodiments, the user could simply ask to be connected to aparticular business. In this instance, the voice application performedon the local device would need to obtain the telephone numbercorresponding to the business requested by the user. In many instances,the telephone number will be a toll free number maintained by thatbusiness.

In step S504, the system would check to determine if the businesscorresponding to the toll free number can be reached via the datanetwork. This could involve examining a publically available directorywhich cross references business names with toll free telephone numbersand the IP addresses of data gateways which are maintained by thebusinesses. In other instances, the voice application could consult aninternally maintained database which has been created by the overallsystem. In most instances, such a database would be stored on a remoteserver available to the voice application through the data network 220.

In step S506, the voice application would determine whether the partyrequested by the user is available through the data network. If not, instep S508, the voice application would place a telephone call through anormal telephone network connection. If the called party is availablethrough the data network, in step S510, the voice application would setup the telephone call between the user's local device and the gatewaymaintained by the called business.

Another way that a system embodying the invention can be used to connecta user to services offered by a business is by performing a voiceapplication created for a business. For instance, and as discussedabove, with prior systems, if a user requests to be connected to thecustomer service department of a business, the system would connect theuser to a customer service telephone line of the business. However,instead of connecting the user to a business through a telephone call tothe business' customer service line, the system could instead begin toperform a voice application that has been created by or for thebusiness.

In this scenario, the voice application that is performed for the usercould mimic an interactive voice response system that a user wouldencounter if the user had placed a normal telephone call to thebusiness' customer service line. In many instances, the user's needscould be satisfied by interacting with the voice application.

Moreover, because of the excellent speech recognition services that canbe offered by a system embodying the invention, a voice applicationperformed for a user might offer even better functionality than an IVRthat the business offers through its customer service line. This wouldbe particularly true for medium and smaller businesses that would nothave the resources to deliver high end and complex speech recognitionfunctionality on their customer service interactive voice application.For these reasons, once a business has created a voice application thatcan be launched when a user requests to be connected to the business,more of the user's needs could be satisfied by the voice applicationthan would have been satisfied by an interactive voice response systemoffered through a telephone connection. And this could reduce the needfor businesses to employ live operators, further reducing costs.

The voice application for a business could also act to establish a voicecall between the user and a live operator whenever the voice applicationalone is not able to satisfy all of a customer's needs. However, untilthe voice call is established, the only message traffic passing back andforth between the user's local device and the business' systems would beasynchronous data communications necessary to provide the voiceapplication with the information being requested by the user. Thus, theamount of data traffic carried over the data network would likely be farsmaller in situations where a business' voice application is beingperformed for the user, as compared to a situation where the user isconnected to the business' customer service line through the datanetwork.

Another method embodying the invention where a voice application for abusiness is performed for the user is illustrated in FIG. 6. The methodwould start in step S602 when the system would receive a request to beconnected to a business. In step S604, before attempting to establish acall to the business via either the telephone or data network, thesystem would first check to see is there is a voice applicationavailable for the business. If there is a voice application, in stepS606, the method would branch to step S610, where the voice applicationwould be performed for the user on the user's local device. On the otherhand, if no voice application is available for the business, in stepS608, the system would establish a telephone call to the business viaeither the telephone or the data network.

In some instances, there might be multiple different voice applicationsavailable for a business. If that is the case, the system could interactwith the user to determine the most appropriate voice application toperform for the user.

Any reference in this specification to “one embodiment,” “anembodiment,” “example embodiment,” etc., means that a particularfeature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with theembodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the invention. Theappearances of such phrases in various places in the specification arenot necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Further, when aparticular feature, structure, or characteristic is described inconnection with any embodiment, it is submitted that it is within thepurview of one skilled in the art to effect such feature, structure, orcharacteristic in connection with other ones of the embodiments.

Although the invention has been described with reference to a number ofillustrative embodiments thereof, it should be understood that numerousother modifications and embodiments can be devised by those skilled inthe art that will fall within the spirit and scope of the principles ofthis disclosure. More particularly, reasonable variations andmodifications are possible in the component parts and/or arrangements ofthe subject combination within the scope of the foregoing disclosure,the drawings and the appended claims without departing from the spiritof the invention. In addition to variations and modifications in thecomponent parts and/or arrangements, alternative uses will also beapparent to those skilled in the art.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of responding to a user's request tocommunicate with a business, comprising: receiving a request from a userto communicate with a business, wherein the request is received by alocal device; determining whether one or more voice applications thatare relevant to goods or services provided by the business or whether avoice application specifically created for the business are available;performing, for the user, at least one voice application that either isrelevant to the goods or services provided by the business or that hasbeen specifically created for the business if a voice applicationrelevant to the goods or services provided by the business or that hasbeen specifically created for the business is available, wherein thevoice application is performed, at least in part, on the local device;and establishing a communications channel between the user and thebusiness if no voice application relevant to the goods or servicesprovided by the business or that has been specifically created for thebusiness is available.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the request isreceived by a voice applications agent that is resident, at least inpart, on a local device or a voice application that is performed by avoice applications agent that is resident, at least in part, on thelocal device, and wherein the determining step comprises determining,with the voice applications agent or the voice application, whether oneor more voice applications that are relevant to the goods or servicesprovided by the business or that have been specifically created for thebusiness are available.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the performingstep comprises a voice applications agent that is resident, at least inpart, on the local device performing the voice application.
 4. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the receiving step comprises receiving arequest to place a telephone call to a toll free number maintained bythe business.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving stepcomprises receiving a request to place a telephone call to the business.6. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving step comprises receivinga spoken request from the user to communicate with the business, andwherein the determining step comprises interpreting the user's spokenrequest with a voice applications agent that is resident, at least inpart, on the local device or a voice application that is performed by avoice applications agent that is resident, at least in part, on thelocal device to determine the identity of the business.
 7. The method ofclaim 1, wherein if the determining step indicates that a plurality ofvoice applications that are relevant to the goods or services providedby the business are available, or that a plurality of voice applicationsthat have been specifically created for the business are available, themethod further comprises interacting with the user with a voiceapplications agent that is resident, at least in part, on the localdevice or a voice application that is performed by a voice applicationsagent that is resident, at least in part, on the local device todetermine which of the plurality of voice applications should beperformed for the user.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein interactingwith the user comprises a voice applications agent that is resident, atleast in part, on the local device or a voice application that isperformed by a voice applications agent that is resident, at least inpart, on the local device: playing audio to the user to ask the user forinformation; receiving a spoken response from the user; interpreting theuser's spoken response; and determining which of the plurality of voiceapplications should be performed for the user based on theinterpretation of the user's spoken response.
 9. The method of claim 1,wherein the receiving step comprises receiving a spoken request from theuser to communicate with the business, wherein the method furthercomprises: interpreting the user's spoken request with a voiceapplications agent that is resident, at least in part, on the localdevice or a voice application that is performed by a voice applicationsagent that is resident, at least in part, on the local device todetermine a name of the business; and searching a contact list using thedetermined business name to identify a telephone number corresponding tothe business name, and wherein the step of establishing a communicationschannel between the user and the business comprises placing a telephonecall to the identified telephone number with a voice applications agentthat is resident, at least in part, on the local device or a voiceapplication that is performed by a voice applications agent that isresident, at least in part, on the local device.
 10. The method of claim9, wherein the step of placing a telephone call to the identifiedtelephone number comprises establishing a Voice over Internet Protocol(VoIP) telephone call between the business and the user's local devicevia a data network.
 11. The method of claim 10, further comprisingbilling the business for establishing the VoIP telephone call.
 12. Themethod of claim 1, wherein if a voice application is performed for theuser, the method further comprises establishing a communications channelbetween the user's local device and the business after the voiceapplication has been performed.
 13. The method of claim 12, whereinduring the performance of the voice application, information is obtainedfrom the user, and wherein the obtained information is used to determinea telephone number that is used to establish the communications channelbetween the user's local device and the entity after the voiceapplication has been performed.
 14. A non-transitory computer readablemedium having instructions stored thereon, which when executed by one ormore processors of a local device and/or one or more processors of atleast one computer server in communication with the local device, causethe local device and/or the at least one computer server to perform amethod comprising: receiving a request from a user to communicate with abusiness, wherein the request is received by a local device; determiningwhether one or more voice applications that are relevant to goods orservices provided by the business or whether a voice applicationspecifically created for the business are available; performing, for theuser, at least one voice application that either is relevant to thegoods or services provided by the business or that has been specificallycreated for the business if a voice application that is relevant to thegoods or services provided by the business or that has been specificallycreated for the business is available, wherein the voice application isperformed on the local device; and establishing a communications channelbetween the user and the business if no voice application that isrelevant to the goods or services provided by the business or that hasbeen specifically created for the business is available.
 15. Thenon-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein the requestis received by a voice applications agent that is resident, at least inpart, on a local device or a voice application that is performed by avoice applications agent that is resident, at least in part, on thelocal device, and wherein the determining step comprises determining,with the voice applications agent or the voice application, whether oneor more voice applications that are relevant to the goods or servicesprovided by the business or that were specifically created for thebusiness are available.
 16. The non-transitory computer readable mediumof claim 14, wherein the performing step comprises a voice applicationsagent that is resident, at least in part, on the local device performingthe voice application.
 17. The non-transitory computer readable mediumof claim 14, wherein the receiving step comprises receiving a spokenrequest from the user to communicate with the business, and wherein thedetermining step comprises interpreting the user's spoken request with avoice applications agent that is resident, at least in part, on thelocal device or a voice application that is performed by a voiceapplications agent that is resident, at least in part, on the localdevice to determine the identity of the business.
 18. The non-transitorycomputer readable medium of claim 14, wherein if the determining stepindicates that a plurality of voice applications that are relevant tothe goods or services provided by the business or that were specificallycreated for the business are available, the method performed by localdevice and/or the at least one computer server further comprisesinteracting with the user with a voice applications agent that isresident, at least in part, on the local device or a voice applicationthat is performed by a voice applications agent that is resident, atleast in part, on the local device to determine which of the pluralityof voice applications should be performed for the user.
 19. Thenon-transitory computer readable medium of claim 18, wherein interactingwith the user comprises a voice applications agent that is resident, atleast in part, on the local device or a voice application that isperformed by a voice applications agent that is resident, at least inpart, on the local device: playing audio to the user to ask the user forinformation; receiving a spoken response from the user; interpreting theuser's spoken response; and determining which of the plurality of voiceapplications should be performed for the user based on theinterpretation of the user's spoken response.
 20. The non-transitorycomputer readable medium of claim 14, wherein the receiving stepcomprises receiving a spoken request from the user to communicate withthe business, and wherein the method performed by the local deviceand/or the at least one computer server further comprises: interpretingthe user's spoken request with a voice applications agent that isresident, at least in part, on the local device or a voice applicationthat is performed by a voice applications agent that is resident, atleast in part, on the local device to determine a name of the business;and searching a contact list using the determined business name toidentify a telephone number corresponding to the business name, andwherein the step of establishing a communications channel between theuser and the business comprises placing a telephone call to theidentified telephone number with a voice applications agent that isresident, at least in part, on the local device or a voice applicationthat is performed by a voice applications agent that is resident, atleast in part, on the local device.
 21. The non-transitory computerreadable medium of claim 20, wherein the step of placing a telephonecall to the identified telephone number comprises establishing a Voiceover Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone call between the business andthe user's local device via a data network.
 22. The non-transitorycomputer readable medium of claim 21, wherein the method furthercomprises billing the entity for establishing the VoIP telephone call.23. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein ifa voice application is performed for the user, the method performed bythe local device and/or the at least one computer server furthercomprises establishing a communications channel between the user's localdevice and the business after the voice application has been performed.24. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining step comprisesdetermining whether one or more voice applications that have beenspecifically created for the business are available, and wherein theperforming step comprises performing at least one voice application thathas been specifically created for the business if such a voiceapplication is available.
 25. The non-transitory computer readablemedium of claim 14, wherein the determining step of the method that isperformed comprises determining whether one or more voice applicationsthat have been specifically created for the business are available, andwherein the performing step of the method that is performed comprisesperforming at least one voice application that has been specificallycreated for the business if such a voice application is available.